Jenerally Speaking: A Better Relationship With Being Human

WHY is it that we can feel SO ready for the next chapter of our lives… and still have no fucking clue where we’re going?

Like, we’re ready. We’ve got ideas. We’ve got plans. We’ve practically decorated the place in our heads. So why does it still feel like we’re all dressed up with nowhere to go?

HOW do we know whether we’re finishing one chapter, beginning another, or just standing somewhere in the middle wondering what the hell we’re supposed to do with ourselves?

And WHAT IF the part we’re so damn impatient to get through is hiding something we haven’t even thought to look for?

This week, 6 unexpected words came flying out of my mouth after a 10 hour drive… and sent me down a rabbit hole I did NOT see coming.

We’re talking changing seasons, old habits, the lives we imagine, and a ridiculous little challenge that might reveal more about us than we’d like to admit. 😂

Grab your curiosity. You might want to grab some candy, too. 🍭

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Ever have ONE thing happen… and suddenly your brain wants to unleash every unresolved issue since 2007? 😂

This week we’re talking emotional pileups, crash-outs, open tabs, tears, hormones, grief, exhaustion, and why one feeling doesn’t get to become spokesperson for your whole life.

Maybe you’re not broken. Maybe your system just needs a minute to catch up.

And if YOU wanna go for a walk:

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What happens when one part of your life is popping off… while another part is completely under construction?

This week, walk with me through the weird reality of having one foot on the gas and one on the brake — and somehow still moving.

And somewhere in the middle of this conversation, I realize something about what I’ve actually been doing on this podcast every week — and it turns into something I definitely did not plan before I hit record. 😂

Maybe you don’t need another person telling you what to do.

Maybe you need a question you haven’t thought to ask yet. 😉

Let’s walk:

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Some of us got really good at being easy.

Easy to live with.

Easy to accommodate.

Easy to clean up after.

Easy to blend into the room.

We picked the safe color.

The practical thing.

The neutral version.

We learned not to take up too much space.

But if you keep editing yourself out of your physical life…

how will the people who love you know it’s you?

And on the flip side… if your life is so full of random stuff that the things that actually feel like you get buried…

how will they find you there either?

This episode is about the strange little clues we leave behind in our colors, smells, spaces, rituals, objects, food, clothes, and choices — and what it might mean to become more recognizable while we’re still here.

HOW WILL THEY KNOW IT’S YOU?

What if “I don’t need much” isn’t always freedom?

What if sometimes it’s programming?

What if wanting more doesn’t mean you’re ungrateful?

What if desire isn’t the problem?

What if the problem is how quickly we shame it?

This one is taking us somewhere… yowzers!

How much of your life is still happening somewhere no one else can see?

The conversations you rehearse. The ideas you keep circling. The style you love but never wear. The things you keep saying you’ll try “someday.”

And what happens when one of those things finally crosses over?

This week, a very mundane dinner moment somehow cracked open a much bigger question about the invisible worlds we carry around inside us… what we let out, what we keep in, and what might be waiting for a chance to become part of our actual life.

After last week’s episode about my suicide/ideation history, a few loving comments stopped me in my tracks.

Not because I disagreed with them.

Because something in my chest kept saying:

Wait.

I didn’t understand why at first.

Then I did.

And once I heard it whisper, a prayer I’ve known almost my entire life suddenly sounded completely different.

This episode goes into spirituality, faith, Heaven, Earth, the things we run from, the things we run toward… and a question I honestly can’t believe I hadn’t asked before.

“ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN?”

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TEXT OR CALL 988 when life’s challenges feel too heavy to walk with on your own.

https://988lifeline.org/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=onebox

In support of suicide awareness, join a walk near you this September/October:

https://afspwalks.donordrive.com/OOTDWalks

Have a “Box of Hope” sent to a family who just lost someone to suicide or simply donate to all the ways they are helping others “Out of the Darkness”

https://www.outofthedarknessfoundation.org/

2 years ago, I sat in a certification course to become a “Mental Health First Responder”. I was there to learn how to help OTHERS recognize the signs, right?

But then we got to the section on suicidal ideation. And somewhere in that, I recognized something in MYSELF… not a memory, but something current, something I’d been carrying and just calling by gentler terms.

It shocked me. Because I thought that chapter of my life was long closed.

There was a version of me (back in high school) who was carrying something heavier than anyone around her realized. 3/4 of those HS years, I had quietly decided this wasn’t a life I planned to stay in. I know how that sounds from the outside but it’s my truth, and it’s my story to tell.

Something shifted by my Sr year, and I stopped planning to leave. Butttt 2 years ago, in that certification course, I learned that deciding to stay and actually wanting to be here aren’t the same thing… and that the space between them still had a name I hadn’t known to give it.

This episode is that whole story...

High school…

What changed it…

The years after…

…And what I found out two years ago that I didn’t expect to still be true.

If you’ve ever whispered something internally, that you’re at peace with [God/Universe/Life/Creator] taking you at any time simply bc you’re just OVER how this life works…

Press play. And if this hits home, please don’t sit with it alone… 988 is available to text or talk thru the life stuff with you, and I’ve linked more resources below.

🩵💜We’re all just walking each other home.

TEXT OR CALL 988 when life’s challenges feel too heavy to walk with on your own.

https://988lifeline.org/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=onebox

In support of suicide awareness, join a walk near you this September/October:

https://afspwalks.donordrive.com/OOTDWalks

Have a “Box of Hope” sent to a family who just lost someone to suicide or simply donate to all the ways they are helping others “Out of the Darkness”

https://www.outofthedarknessfoundation.org/

Why do good vibes make us nervous?

Why do we say things like don’t jinx it, knock on wood, and don’t get too excited?

I followed that anxious lil whisper this week, through upbringings, the American culture, & lived experience… and ended up somewhere I did not see coming.

🎧 New episode of Jenerally Speaking out now.

Ep22: “Too Good To Be True?”

Have you ever known a LOT about someone… and still felt like you hadn’t actually met them?

We all have a stage… our jobs, roles, relationships, routines, bios, all the VISIBLE stuff.

But what happens backstage?

This week, that question took me from dating and marriage to music, creativity, authenticity, and one very UNEXPECTED realization about what it means to actually connect with another human.

And somewhere along the way, the question I was asking about OTHER PEOPLE turned around on me. 👀😂

🎧 New episode of Jenerally Speaking is out now.

Ep21: Speak To A Human

This week, my hometown lost someone who knew how to show up for her own life.

And while sitting with the shock of losing her, I found myself asking a question I can’t seem to un-ask:

What are we waiting for?

This episode is about unfinished lives, someday lists, strange dreams, getting ready to get ready… and what it might look like to actually participate while we’re here.

Because maybe the goal isn’t to leave with everything finished.

Maybe it’s to leave with evidence that we were in it.

Apparently I got emotionally bullied by a locust this week.

I’d been walking around in this weird little funk even though nothing was actually wrong. Food wasn’t hitting. Music wasn’t hitting. Even poolside wasn’t hitting… which, if you know me, is when you know something is OFF.

So I took my mopey little Eeyore ass for a walk.

And about two minutes in, I heard it.

The sound I’d apparently been trying very hard not to hear.

And suddenly, I knew exactly why I’d been feeling so damn gray.

Except… it wasn’t really about summer.

Turns out, those freaking locusts opened a door I didn’t realize I’d been keeping shut.

And what was behind it?

Well… apparently we need to talk about endings.

Or maybe what we do when we can hear one coming.

🩷 See you inside

Well… shit.

I accidentally made a trilogy.

First, we stopped buffering life.

Then we started noticing it.

This week…

we have to decide what to do with what we found.

Because noticing doesn’t end the journey.

It begins it.

What if the scariest part of changing…

…isn’t the change?

It’s being seen while you’re changing.

See you inside. 🩷

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***DISCLAIMER: This podcast is for entertainment and inspirational purposes only. Nothing shared here constitutes medical, psychological, or professional advice. Always consult your physician or a qualified professional before making any changes to your health, medications, or treatment plan.

What if you aren’t lost?

What if your mind is simply too loud to hear yourself?

A conversation about bird noticing becomes something much deeper: mental noise, grief, childhood, the places that hold us, and the practice of returning to who we already are.

Maybe home isn’t somewhere at the end of the road.

Maybe it’s something you remember.

See you inside 🩷

Village Page:

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***DISCLAIMER: This podcast is for entertainment and inspirational purposes only. Nothing shared here constitutes medical, psychological, or professional advice. Always consult your physician or a qualified professional before making any changes to your health, medications, or treatment plan.

I’ve spent most of my life trying not to be selfish.

And now?

I think I want to be selfish AF.

Something clicked for me recently about the way I protect my relationship with myself, my body, my emotions… and this one human experience I get to have.

But the deeper I went, the more I started wondering if we’ve completely misunderstood what it means to be selfish.

Because maybe some of the things we’ve been taught to feel guilty for protecting are the very things we should be protecting the most.

This one took me somewhere I wasn’t expecting.

Maybe it’ll take you there, too.

We’re all just walking each other home.

See you inside. 🩷

Village Page:

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***DISCLAIMER: This podcast is for entertainment and inspirational purposes only. Nothing shared here constitutes medical, psychological, or professional advice. Always consult your physician or a qualified professional before making any changes to your health, medications, or treatment plan.

“After all I’ve done for you…”

🩷Whether it’s said out loud or carried through resentment, that sentence can turn love into leverage, help into obligation, and gratitude into debt.

In this episode of Jenerally Speaking, Jen explores how a childhood understanding of the Golden Rule may have taught many of us to give, love, stay loyal, and show up with the expectation that others would eventually do the same in return.

🤎What happens when they don’t?

Through relationships, social media, professional mentorship, and personal growth, this conversation asks:

Can we honor the people who helped us without giving them permanent access to every future version of our lives?

💛Can we offer support without confusing our offer with someone else’s obligation?

Can we receive love without feeling owned by it?

Because gratitude should root us.

It should not bury us.

Maybe the work is learning how to remove the dagger from our own chest without placing it into someone else’s hands.

We’re all just walking each other home.

💚And if you’re looking for people to continue the conversation with, join us in the Village:

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***DISCLAIMER: This podcast is for entertainment and inspirational purposes only. Nothing shared here constitutes medical, psychological, or professional advice. Always consult your physician or a qualified professional before making any changes to your health, medications, or treatment plan.

🩷What does it mean to live a disposable life?

Years ago, a salon client who owned an auction company told me, “You youngins live disposable lives now.” I’ve wondered about that ever since.

🤎Are we simply less attached to things? Or have we become so comfortable replacing what no longer fits that we’ve started doing it with jobs, relationships, memories—and even ourselves?

In this episode of Jenerally Speaking, we explore the difference between growing and rejecting who we used to be.

💛Because maybe our old selves aren’t failed versions to throw away.

Maybe they’re earlier chapters of the same life.

And someday, today’s self will be an old self too.

How do we hope our future self speaks about who we are right now?

💚For more deliciousness on this episode, join the rest of our walk at:

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***DISCLAIMER: This podcast is for entertainment and inspirational purposes only. Nothing shared here constitutes medical, psychological, or professional advice. Always consult your physician or a qualified professional before making any changes to your health, medications, or treatment plan.

🩷Have you ever reached the end of the day and wanted no one to need one more thing from you?

Maybe you cancel the plans you made, ignore the texts, close the bedroom door, or need an entire day alone just to feel like yourself again. Then the guilt arrives, making you wonder why you have nothing left for the people and parts of life you genuinely love.

🤎But what if nothing is wrong with you?

In this episode of Jenerally Speaking, we explore the possibility that exhaustion is not always caused by doing too much—but by spending too long moving in one direction.

Giving. Producing. Responding. Leading. Solving. Performing.

Exhaling.

💛Through seasons, social hangovers, salon conversations, parenting, partnership, creativity, doomscrolling, and everyday life, we wonder what it might mean to alternate our output with moments of genuine receiving.

Not through another rigid routine.

Not by micromanaging balance.

But by learning how to create a life that breathes.

Because maybe we don’t need to escape our lives so often if we learn how to breathe while we’re living them.

💚And if you’re looking for people to continue the conversation with, join us in the Village:

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***DISCLAIMER: This podcast is for entertainment and inspirational purposes only. Nothing shared here constitutes medical, psychological, or professional advice. Always consult your physician or a qualified professional before making any changes to your health, medications, or treatment plan.

The complicated (and sometimes dysfunctional) relationship with encouragement, advice, coaching, and guidance

🩷Have you ever received encouragement that was meant to help… but somehow made you trust yourself less?

“You’re almost there” sounds hopeful. Supportive. Motivating.

🤎But what happens when those words begin to feel like pressure? What happens when encouragement becomes a promise no one can actually make… or when continuing toward the destination is no longer the wisest choice?

In this episode of Jenerally Speaking, I explore our complicated relationship with encouragement through two very different experiences: giving birth and hiking a mountain.

💛When does someone else’s perspective help us keep going?

When do hopeful words disconnect us from what our body and our life are actually saying?

Maybe “you’re almost there” was never meant to tell us which direction to walk.

Maybe it was only meant to remind us that this moment is not the whole story.

💚 And if you’re looking for people to continue the conversation with, join us in the Village:

https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1ctdGQYEEU/?mibextid=wwXIfr

***DISCLAIMER: This podcast is for entertainment and inspirational purposes only. Nothing shared here constitutes medical, psychological, or professional advice. Always consult your physician or a qualified professional before making any changes to your health, medications, or treatment plan.

Have you ever heard yourself say that?

Maybe it’s about a new job.

A new chapter.

A new dream.

A new city.

A new version of yourself.

On the surface, it sounds practical. Logical, even.

But what if that resistance isn’t really about starting over?

In this episode, I press record in the middle of a very real emotional moment and follow a question that’s been tugging at me: Why does the idea of beginning again feel so exhausting?

Together, we’ll explore the whispers underneath change, the fear of being unknown, and the surprising difference between starting over and creating again.

If you’re standing at the edge of a new chapter… or feeling the pull toward one… this conversation is for you.

To get more from this episode, come inside to:

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